She knelt on the floor and wept with happiness.

Weaving among other cars as she barreled up the expressway, Rachel was torn in an agony of shame and desire. She clenched her hands tight on the wheel, trying to ignore the urgent ache in her groin, the sheen of sweat that slicked her skin.

What is happening to me? She wriggled against the leather upholstery, trying to scratch the maddening itch at the base of her spine. I've never been turned on by a woman before in my life! And now I'm damn near raping my maid in the middle of my dining room! Is this some sort of mid-life crisis no one told me about? I know women are supposed to hit their sexual peak around my age. Does their sexual preference change as well?

She thought about Josh, due to arrive home in three days. To her vast relief, she found her desire for her ex-husband was undiminished. In fact, it seemed to have increased. It was all she could do to not pick up the phone and beg him to come home to give her the fucking she craved.

No, not craved. Needed. Needed as badly as a she needed air or water.

She cast her memory back to that time, only a few minutes ago, when

Maria's warm brown breasts had been within her reach. How would they feel in her hands? What would her nipple taste Like when she laved it with her tongue?

“Oh, God," she moaned. Her entire body seemed to want to do nothing but prepare itself for sex. It was the voice in her head. The one that had been growing louder and louder for the past week. Sometimes it simply seemed to be her own thoughts, but deeper and darker than any she had ever had before. At other times, it seemed to be an entirely different personality, one bent on pursuing pleasure to the detriment of all else. As she seduced Maria, it had been talking to her, goading her, until the two of them had been only moments away from taking each other in Rachel's own dining room.

And still the desire pushed her. She slipped a hand inside her blouse, pushed down a bra-cup, and gently mauled her tit, her fingers pinching her tight nipple. Wild fantasies flared through her mind. Of hauling one of the lawyers in the office into an unattended janitorial closet for a few frenzied minutes of passionate sex. Her fingers kneaded and prodded, pulling her engorged nipple away from its breast, until she finally shuddered in a shameful, empty climax.

Riding in Rachel's body, Althea savored her sexual pleasure, feeding from her orgasm. She regretted the feelings of confusion in her host's mind, even as she reveled in the strength she brought her. No longer on the edge of dissolution, she was growing stronger every day. ~Soon I will be strong enough to talk to her. To explain.~

She had been wrong, she decided. When she first entered Rachel, she had thought her all but sexless, a joyless automaton whose passions had been so chained that it would take weeks or months before Althea could even think about reclaiming her body. Instead, Rachel reminded Althea of nothing more than a dormant volcano, a woman whose desires had not been extinguished, but merely held in abeyance until given the proper nudge. And just as a volcano could be brought back to life by the smallest shift of a tectonic plate, Rachel's desires were now in full force and desperate for release.

«But Maria,~ she thought. ~That was a welcome surprise.~ She had thought to use Rachel to seduce Maria, since tapping into their pleasure would make her all the stronger. And the scattered hints about

Maria she had gathered from Rachel had led her to believe that the attractive young woman would welcome Rachel's touch. She had extended her power to the utmost, whispering in Maria's mind. But when Rachel had kissed her sexy maid, Althea had been stunned by the depth of her sensuality and her enthusiastic response. She had been in such a state of shock she had actually been glad Rachel had been summoned back to court, as it gave her an opportunity to think and plan.

~A submissive. That is something unexpected.~ Althea was no stranger to the darker side of sex. And being what she was, an immortal of inhuman power, submissives were drawn to her. When she was in her true form, men, and some women as well, sought to lay themselves at her feet, needing a mistress to command them. But while she held that anything which was done between consenting adults was permissible, the history of Althea and her kin made her wary of the sort of unthinking worship some people seemed to think she desired.

Happily, Maria showed no signs of that sort of nonsense. While the need to submit was bone-deep in her, it was tethered to an immense personal strength and moral courage which was the equal to anyone she had ever known. Finding a Master or Mistress would give her intense sexual gratification, especially if that Mistress included bed-play in the relationship. But anyone who sought to abuse Maria's trust would find that which yielded was not necessarily weak.

Yes. She will do nicely.~ She had been fortunate. Very fortunate, indeed. When Peter, the deluded young man who sought to use her for his own twisted desires had died, she might have been pulled into death along with him. Even when she escaped his dying body, it was only the merest chance which decreed her new host was a lovely woman, rather than a child or a dried-up old stick of a man. And Rachel's family and circle of acquaintances were Like a pile of oil-soaked rags, needing only the smallest spark to set the flames of passion alight. Her days-Long sojourn through Rachel's mind had showed her the depth of feeling she still had for her ex-husband Joshua. Friends and Lovers for over twenty years, the two had become estranged due to mule-Like stubbornness. But the love was still there, like the coals of a campfire, needing only a breath to be rekindled.

Then there were the children, Alex and Sarah. Good-looking, intelligent, and passionate about their own lives, they had been smothered by Rachel, almost stunted by her good intentions. Her belief that she knew what was best for them had put them on the edge of open rebellion. But Althea's whispered hints and Rachel's own innate decency had kept them from that fate. Now Althea searched Rachel's mind, wondering how she could use them for her own purpose. They had both inherited Rachel's lusty capacity for love-making. But Althea didn't want to simply use and discard them. With help, she thought she could guide them towards the Life-Long happiness which all humans Longed for, but few achieved.

She gave a mental snort. ~It's a little late in the day to try to win salvation through good deeds, don't you think? Or are you actually turning into a romantic in your old age?~

The life of a succubus was by turns both richly rewarding and irretrievably bleak. Rewarding, because of the pleasure and power to be be gained through sex. And humans were an inexhaustible supply. Also, she and her kin were the Last defense of the Almighty against the hosts of Hell, and dispatching demon-spawn into the Abyss never ceased to be a cause for joy.

Yet, despite that, she and her kind had slowly dwindled through the ages, until there were barely a handful left. Many of her kin, worn down by the unending millennia, had taken their own lives in despair, or had been killed in their long war against Hell. The Lives of humans, brief as mayflies, burned and died like sparks from a fire on a winter's night. The death of every lover stole a piece of her heart, until she had armed and armored herself against caring. She had made her way through the world with a smile on her lips and a lock on her soul.